Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 was introduced in May 2011, and the company now is readying an innovative follow-up: the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid. The 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Hybrid is built around Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processor and Windows 7. In addition, the ThinkPad X1 includes Gorilla Glass, Dolby Home Theater v4 audio, HDMI-out, Intel Wireless Display technology, and Rapid Charge technology that allows the notebook to reach an 80 percent charge in a quick 30 minutes.

However, the most interesting part of the laptop comes courtesy of its "Hybrid" nomenclature. The ThinkPad X1 Hybrid includes a secondary Qualcomm dual-core ARM processor and 16GB of flash storage. This Instant Media Mode (IMM) allows a user to enter an Android-based environment for multimedia playback, web browsing, and productivity work (i.e. working on documents and spreadsheets).

ThinkPad X1 Hybrid

Users can access the IMM by clicking on an icon from within the Windows 7 environment. While this seems like unnecessary added complexity and cost to us -- the original ThinkPad X1 had a base price of $1,399; the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid starts at $1,599 -- Lenovo points out that battery life doubles from five hours to ten hours when operating in IIM.

But the ThinkPad X1 Hybrid isn’t’ the only new notebook on Lenovo’s radar screen. Intel's nascent "Ultrabook" platform is the chipmaker's attempt to strike back at the popularity of Apple's thin and light MacBook Air lineup. Not surprisingly, many of Intel's hardware partners -- including Lenovo -- have jumped on the Ultrabook bandwagon. While Lenovo’s first entry was under the consumer-centric IdeaPad umbrella, its latest Ultrabook is for the business-oriented ThinkPad family,

The new ThinkPad T430u weighs less than four pounds, features an aluminum lid, and is less the 0.8-inches thick. Predictably, the ThinkPad T430u is available with Intel's latest Core processor and can be had with either Intel integrated graphics or more powerful NVIDIA graphics solutions.

ThinkPad T430u

When it comes to other hardware specs, Lenovo is keeping relatively mum until Monday, January 9 at CES 2012. The only additional details that we have are that up to a 1TB HDD can be ordered and SSDs will be optional. In addition, the ThinkPad T430u will last up to 6 hours on a charge.

The ThinkPad T430u will have a starting price of $849 and should quickly escalate once popular options like SSDs are added.

“The ThinkPad X1 Hybrid and T430u Ultrabook represent the next generation in thin and light computing,” said Dilip Bhatia, vice president, ThinkPad Business Unit, Lenovo. “From small businesses that literally live their business on the road to corporate professionals working in a managed environment, these new crossover laptops fundamentally change the way people think about mobile computing technology.”

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showing that you can make a MacBook Air competitor that doesn’t look almost exactly like a MacBook Air. Won’t stop trolls defending other ultabooks with "Well, it’s a screen and a keyboard, of course it looks like a cheap knock-off!", but hey, at least now people can point out the ThinkPad.

If the build quality is decent (only way to make sure is to hold one) and I were in a market for a Windows laptop, the ThinkPad would be on the top of my list—and perhaps will be, depending on what I need for development later this year.

Lenovo is ranked the highest in the industry in quality, this includes Apple. The x301 was very thin, a predecesor to this, and it was awesome. It was thin, light, well built, fast. Slightly thicker than MBA, but had a built in DVD. It was the thinnest laptop with DVD. YOu can count on anything thinkpad is going to be well built.

I was really surprised by this as well. When Lenovo bought it, we all expected them to keep the name and drop the quality, but it actually went up.

This isnt super scientific, but at the company I was at for the past 3 years I personally bought over 300 Thinkpads (T400-420 and T500-520's) None of them were DOA, and only 2 failed in my 3 years there for anything other than a defective hard drive or abuse (water damage, broken screen etc). Thats not just good, its freegin amazing.

The x301 had an optical drive, 3 USB ports, gigabit ethernet port, VGA out, displayport, removable battery, and a replaceable SSD/HDD (albeit 1.8"). It completely put the MBA to shame. It was basically the Thinkpad engineers thumbing their noses at Apple's claim that "there wasn't enough room" on the MBA for extra USB ports, an ethernet port, removable battery, or full-size video outputs.

Back when it came out, my mom and I got an x300 for my dad for his birthday. It's built like a brick and still running great nearly 4 years later. There is almost no screen flex, and the case feels like you could use it to pound nails. Its only drawback was a dimmer screen compared to other high-end Thinkpads. I would've gotten one too, except it didn't come with a discrete video card.

The low-end Lenovos are starting to turn into junk, but their high-end models still have the Thinkpad magic (or had it as of a couple years ago).

Yup, and a 1440x900 13 inch screen. It really was a sweet laptop. Perfect combo of everything. I really hope this T430 has options for anything greater than a 1368x768 screen. I will puke if thats all it has.